The Council of State is recruiting a Dutch-speaking counselor for administrative litigation

The Council of State has opened a vacancy for a Dutch-speaking (N) Councilor of State, primarily assigned to the administrative litigation section. The official notice, published in the Belgian Official Gazette on October 5, 2026, under reference C − 2026/007086 (p. 52962), sets the deadline for submitting applications as November 5, 2026. The position will soon be awarded within the country’s highest administrative jurisdiction.

A position primarily assigned to administrative litigation

The text recalls that the Councilor of State to be appointed may, in principle, be assigned to either the legislation section or the administrative litigation section. However, the notice settles the matter: the vacant position is “primarily assigned to the administrative litigation section.” The Dutch-speaking (N) linguistic regime is included in the title of the vacancy itself, published in the official notices section of the Belgian Official Gazette.

Strict appointment conditions

The notice reproduces Article 70, § 2, of the coordinated laws on the Council of State, which governs access to the function. The candidate must meet a set of cumulative conditions:

• be at least thirty-seven years of age;
• hold a doctorate, licentiate, or master’s degree in law;
• demonstrate at least ten years of useful professional experience of a legal nature;
• satisfy one of the six alternative conditions listed in the provision.

These six alternative conditions are as follows:

• have passed the competition for assistant auditor and assistant legal researcher at the Council of State, the competition for legal researcher at the Constitutional Court, the competition for legal researcher at the Court of Cassation, the competition for assistant auditor at the Court of Audit, or the professional aptitude examination provided for in Article 259bis of the Judicial Code;
• hold an administrative position of at least class A4, or an equivalent rank, in a Belgian administration or public body;
• have successfully defended a doctoral thesis in law or be an aggregate of higher education in law;
• hold a position as a prosecutor or a permanent judge in Belgium, or be a member of the Council for Alien Law Litigation;
• hold a law teaching position at a Belgian university;
• have practiced the profession of lawyer as a primary professional activity for at least twenty years, or have held a position requiring a good knowledge of law for at least twenty years, including at least fifteen years as a lawyer.

Applications and practical information

Applications, accompanied by a curriculum vitae, must be sent by registered mail to the First President of the Council of State, Rue de la Science 33, 1040 Brussels. The postmark shall serve as proof of date. To avoid inadmissibility, they must be dispatched by November 5, 2026, at the latest. Any useful information can be obtained from the Personnel & Organization management service of the Council of State, at the address P&Oinfo@raadvst-consetat.be.

For Dutch-speaking lawyers who meet these conditions, the notice opens a one-month window to join the supreme administrative jurisdiction. The deadline is strict: after the postmark of November 5, 2026, applications will be declared inadmissible.

Source: Belgian Official Gazette of October 5, 2026, notice C − 2026/007086, p. 52962-52963.